We can't say for certain that Netflix is at fault here, but it's beginning to sound like Roku isn't at all / entirely to blame for
recent quality issues that have been plaguing users. For weeks now,
Roku Netflix Player owners have noticed an almost universal drop in quality dots (which range from 1 to 4 in order to show quality levels), with many finding the new feeds "unwatchable."
CNET recently had a talk with Tim Twerdahl, vice president of consumer products at Roku, about the issue, and according to Tim, all he knows is that "Roku didn't make any changes." Furthermore, we've seen
comments in our own posts noting that other Netflix-enabled boxes are also seeing the quality drop. The worst part is that there's still no definitive solution in sight, so we suppose our only advice is to kick back and watch Netflix and Roku bicker over who's really to blame.
[Image courtesy of
AeonScope, thanks Tyler]
posted Dec 2nd 2008 1:40AM
Could this slow down perhaps be a co-incidence that it happened around the same time XBOX 360 got NetFlix?
First thing I thought of as well...
Me too, I am wondering if their bandwidth is just too poor for all these new users.
Are you able to see these four dots anywhere to know if your getting the highest quality?
Download set top boxes and download portable players ( ie Blockbuster, Apple TV, VUDU, Hulu, PS3 ) are a thing of the past, only to be replaced by the technology used by service providers such as MyTVPAL ( www.mytvpal.com ) and Netflix ( www.netflix.com ).
Service providers like MyTVPAL offer 1080p instant blu-ray streaming video on demand and live tv over PC Player, set top box, and I think they will have a portable device out soon.
Keep in mind also that P2P is on the way out because it uses to much bandwidth, both up and down, and is unstable. I'm refering to service providers such as VUDU ( a one trick pony ) and Joost, who latest foray into portable video on demand on the itouch / iphone is frezing, buffering, and providing a horrible user experience even on my 6mbps connection.
Streaming video is a great addition for live tv an video on demand, but at the end of the day only those technology companies like Matrixstream ( www.matrixstream.com ) will be able to support the best quality over the best effort public internet when doing a triple play ( set top box, PC Player, and portable device ) because currently where Netflix requires 8mbps for 720p streaming, MyTVPAL can support 720p streaming a 3mbps and 1080p blu-ray streaming at 6mbps.
Keep the above in mind when considering the average person today in the United States and Canada has between 1.5 - 3.0Mbps. So While MyTVPAL can service the majority of broadband users today in the United States and Canada in both 720p and 1080p today it will be years before Netflix can service a fraction of the broadband population in high definition instant video streaming.
At the end of the Day service providers such as Netflix and Blockbuster will have evolve to provide a service like MyTVPAL or suffer the consequences of not providing low bandwidth, instant playing, 1080p blu-ray high definition platform that we've come to expect from MyTVPAL ( www.mytvpal.com ) on PC Player, set top box, and soon I would imagine, portable player.
Netflix 720p HD encodes are 2600kbps and 3800kbps. At least according to their own blog:
http://blog.netflix.com/2008/11/encoding-for-streaming.html
Perhaps what you say about speed is true, or not. Have to check it out more. BUT, in the meantime I can say I checked out the website for the box you were promoting. So far in the US the only HD quality stuff was Movie Trailers and IMAX Movies. Also, it isn't clear on the site if it will charge for HD Movies as it goes from listing Free TV/Movies and then mentions nothing free in the HD Quality stuff.
Plus the channels available are really odd. I have an Apple TV hacked with BOXXEE and it gives me tons of stuff to watch that way AND I have a Roku box to watch my Netflix stuff that seems to play just fine and I only pay my low monthly fee to watch that AND get DVD's into the house within 2 days turnaround. So I think your description is not quite all it is cracked up to be. I would say the playing field is pretty level right now as to who will come out on top, and you need more than one box/service to make it all work for now. Probably have another few years as people are only just starting (like myself) to switch over to Internet TV Services and let go of their Cable and Satelite Service.
Take care and have a better than good day.
I have been noting a drop in quality and performance over the last few days. I have a 8mbps downstream connection, and I still get por quality feeds. Not to mention the 34 times I get lost connection errors and long loads. I am still happy with the service, and I assume they are seeing a spike in usage over 360 and such.
I have the same problem on the 360 service, I'm not so sure it's the Roku.
I am streaming with xbox360 w/7+ meg download speeds, sometimes quality is perfect, sometimes downgrades to unwatchable. Im certain that its a netflix problem
There's some thought that it's the IP's throttling the service.,If you think about it, Netflix and others are a threat to the service providers own on demand services, whether it's Comcast, TWC, Verizon FIOS.....
I wonder if anyone has done a little more research to see if this can be narrowed down to a particular IP. I would find it hard to believe that several IP starting throttling at the same time.
I know, I'm contradicing myself.
I have the Samsung 2500 Blu Ray player and an Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 clearly has much better video quality when watching Netflix movies. They were both equal until early last week.....
Something has changed.
I haven't been having any problems when using my 360. All 4 bars! I would guess though that Netflix got hit hard with all the 360, more then they expected all at once. They also got a bunch of NEW subscriptions in the process so more Hardware to fix the problem and lots more content to feed the demand.
I can replicate these issues (when they occur) on my Xbox and Roku box. This says to me the issue is at the content end not the device end (Roku).
Quality drop has been occuring for me since the NXE launch between 7PM and 10:30PM I can only manage 2 dots on an 8Meg connection. All other times I can hit 4 dots and HD on the xBox. I think the content servers are getting overwhelmed somehow.
I don't have Netflix, but I noticed slowdowns net-wide. I definitely never rule out management decisions for causing trouble anywhere, but there's somewhat of a possibility that a large contributor is the worsened economies of many parts of the world: almost no one will get rid of their Internet connections, whereas pretty much everyone is staying home more, to use less gas and/or because they have less work to do, to spend less money outside, etc., and this causes home use to go up. Home use includes heaters, computers, Internet, TV, telephones, etc.. Well, that means more Internet. Also, everyone was unpacking their new computers from Christmas, and as soon as they got plugged in, boom, updates were downloaded, programs were downloaded, and Internet features were used, causing way more use, too.
There must be other little things like year-end corporate communications, etc., but somehow I doubt that is eating everything up on the Internet.
Nevertheless, my first guess wasn't load; it was throttling, as you said. Like I said, I'll never rule that out.